An image forming apparatus which reads an image of a document to generate image data and performs processing of printing or the like for the image data generally has a mechanism for temporarily saving the image data before processing in the apparatus. In the case of this form, however, in an image forming apparatus such as a low-price model that is not provided with a large storage, it is impossible to store large amount of image data.
Thus, there is a method that an external storage device such as cloud/server connected through a network serves as a saving destination of image data. In the case of this form, however, the image data is not able to be confirmed without accessing the above-described external storage device through the network.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-295256 discloses as follows, as to the technology for using an external storage device connected through a network as a saving destination of image data. That is, in a technology disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-295256, a digital camera transmits created image data to a server through a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) for storage, a server creates a thumbnail image based on the received image data, and when receiving a browsing request of image data from a user terminal, transmits the thumbnail image. When the user terminal displays the received thumbnail image, a user is able to select the target image data.
However, when the technology disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-295256 is applied to an image forming apparatus so that a thumbnail image received from the external storage device through the network is displayed by the image forming apparatus in response to a user request to cause the user to select image data to be processed by the image forming apparatus, time from the user request till when the thumbnail is displayed becomes long, thus lacking user-friendliness.